India’s Unhealthy Obsession With Fake Babas Continues

New Delhi/Bhopal: There’s no shortage of godmen in India, and most of them  are in Indian jails. These godmen are actually Conmen. Every few weeks, a new self-proclaimed, Baba, Messiah, Pastor appears, and gullible individuals throng to them to shove their prayers and money into their hands. Over the last decade, news of umpteen conmen posing as godmen , have captured primetime television slots.
The recent conmen being Suraj Pal, alias Bhole Baba who has been alleged to be responsible for the stampede and death of 121 of his followers at a Satsang recently held at Hathras in Uttar Pradesh. Not to forget that Suraj Pal alias Bhole Barba also has a history of legal troubles, including allegations of sexual assault. Multiple cases have reportedly been filed against him in various jurisdictions including Agra, Etawah, Kasganj, Farrukhabad, and Rajasthan.
And even though reports of such fake gurus and babas being implicated for crimes like murder, rape, tax evasion and fraud are uncovered, India’s unhealthy obsession with these babas continues.

Many experts believe that Indians flock to these self- styled godmen because they believe that mainstream politics and religion have failed them. So with no politician or priest to alleviate their miseries, they turn to gurus , babas, pastors and shamans for succor.
In many ways the rise of babas like the recent one Bhole Baba tells us something about how conventional politics and religion have been failing a large number of people.
So these people become followers and turn to unconventional religion to seek some dignity and quality. Such groups have arisen in many parts of the democratic, modern world.

Fake babas brazenly dupe mentally ill, illiterates: Illiteracy, lack of access to mental hospitals and scarcity of psychiatrists is driving many mentally ill people towards fake gurus/babas/magical healers for treatment .
A number of factors are suggested to influence the mentally ill patient’s decision to seek treatment from a magico- religious healer and they include the patient’s socio-economic status, literacy, gender, nature of symptoms, affordability and access to care, previous and vicarious experiences of care for similar problems, etc.

Reasons Why masses are attracted to these Fake Babas / Magico-religious healers ?

Babas have tremendous ability to give the masses relief or making them believe that they are serving their needs to relief. Large numbers of people especially in rural areas who have no access to receive high education tend to believe the magic of spiritualism. There are umpteen small scale shops of such vendors of esoteric practices. They offer solace to the pain and sickness. If it would not be real at least they give a hypnotic, trance like induced state in collective kirtan or dancing or playing music. All babas offer services to the masses and that is why they are so much in demand.

Curbing the Menace: The fundamental reason for spreading cults is money and power which breed corruption.
Corruption of all kinds is the result of growing money power. It needs strong handling and tough investigation without being intruder.

Secondly it is for the health departments to extensively introduce psychiatric or psychological counseling faculties in the district hospitals with a view to provide relief to the patients and even normal people who suffer from anxiety or depression etc. The government must take these two major suggestions for implementing and providing the suffering humanity relief with available psychological treatment. The only trouble is going to satsangs and deras has no stigma but going to a doctor is declaring your illness. We must fight this superstition prevailing in the countryside. There is a need for extensive extension community service by the block people who merely concentrate on providing subsides supply of services like PDS or other agricultural needs. They should arrange that the panchayats have educated nurses who can sort out minor problems of women and arrange for domestic or village issues.
In other words with the fall of joint family system, villages need some centres for community service.

*Dr. Naresh Purohit-MD, DNB, DIH, MHA, MRCP(UK), is an Epidemiologist, Advisor-National Communicable Disease Control Program of Govt. of India, Madhya Pradesh and several state organizations.)

Dr.  Purohit is also Principal Investigator for the Association of Studies For Kidney Care.